National Council of Provinces

National Council of Provinces
25th Parliament / 4th Democratic Parliament
Type
Type	Upper house of Parliament of South Africa
Leadership
Chairperson	M. J. Mahlangu, ANC since 2004
Leader of the Opposition	Watty Watson, DA
Structure
Members	90
Voting system	Indirect election by provincial legislatures
Meeting place
NCOP Chamber, Houses of Parliament, Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa
Web site
National Council of Provinces

South Africa

This article is part of the series: Politics and government of South Africa

Constitution Bill of Rights Government Executive President Jacob Zuma Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe Cabinet Legislative Parliament National Council of Provinces Chairperson M. J. Mahlangu National Assembly Speaker Max Sisulu Leader of the Opposition Helen Zille (national) Athol Trollip (parliamentary) Elections General: 1910 1915 1920 1921 1924 1929 1933 1938 1943 1948 1953 1958 1961 1966 1970 1974 1977 1981 1984 1987 1989 1994 1999 2004 2009 Municipal: 2000 2006 2011 Referendums: 1960 1983 1992 Judiciary Constitutional Court Supreme Court of Appeal High Court Magistrates Courts Provinces Districts (MMs, DMs) Municipalities (list) Political parties Foreign relations

Other countries · Atlas  Politics portal view • talk • edit

The National Council of Provinces (NCOP) is the upper house of the Parliament of South Africa under the (post-apartheid) constitution which came into full effect in 1997. It replaced the former Senate, but is very similar to that body, and to many other upper houses of legislatures throughout the world, in that its purpose is to represent the specific viewpoints of individual provinces.

Composition

Election to the NCOP is indirect. Citizens vote for provincial legislatures. Each of these legislatures then nominates a delegation of ten members to the NCOP. The delegation, which includes the premier, must reflect the proportion of each political party in the provincial legislature. Thus, each of South Africa's nine provinces has equal representation in the Council regardless of population. A delegation from the South African Local Government Association (SALGA) may also attend sittings of the NCOP, but may not vote.

Decisions

The NCOP has two decision making mechanisms depending on the type of Bill. In the first mechanism bills are passed if the majority of members vote for that bill. In the second, each provincial delegation may cast one vote. In such cases, legislation is passed if five of the nine provinces vote in favour. A bill proposing a Constitutional Amendment requires the approval of six provincial delegations before going to the National Assembly for approval. The NCOP may consider, amend, propose amendments to, or reject legislation. It must consider all national bills, and also has the power to initiate legislation which relates only to the provinces or in areas in which both the national and provincial governments have powers to make law (Schedule 4 areas).

Chairpersons of the National Council of Provinces

References

Parliament of South Africa Website: National Council of Provinces

See also

• Federalism

This South Africa-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

stock | retire | vm
Why are we here?
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License
This page is cache of Wikipedia. History